Sports Fiction ® New Sci-Fi Sports Game Project

A number of game engine systems have been implemented in recent months. Some of these systems have been showcased in the latest development kit journal entry for the game.The clock system was created to monitor the performance of the engine, bringing to the attention of the user, any major concerns regarding the performance of their game. Without seeing what aspect of the engine is slowing down the engine, any attempt to improve the performance will be time consuming.

A node system was added to the engine, this is for programming high level functions, events and gaming logic. The nodes are defined in the X-Producer, and then loaded into Sports Fiction defining the sports, campaigns, rules and other aspects of the game's logic. Nodes work like actions which send data through connectors to other nodes, which use the data to produce a desired result. These nodes like most of the entities are XML based.

RenderingA rendering system was added to my direct X viewport for the game, and its editor (the X-Producer). This system uses an HLSL shader to apply effects and adjustments for the game view, breaking down the rendering into a series of render layers blended together to produce a final result. I will be refining this system in the near future.

GrassOne of the rendering techniques I have explored in recent months is grass shading. There are a number of shader programs under development used for rendering grass at variable distances; which will be crucial for when the time comes to transition from global view, to third-person character view.

The editor being developed for the Sports Fiction project has been called the X-Producer. It contains an array of 26 modules used for producing content for the game and for your own software projects.

The purpose of the X-ProducerThe X-Producer will be the SDK for Sports Fiction modding, a 3D world creator and an IDE for various programming languages used to create my software. It is an editor based on abstraction. You create out of previous creations, and you can create tools which generate such creations for you. A creation can mean anything, for this reason term X is used to represent anything you can think of creating in the production tool.

You can use the X-Producer for whatever you want for your own video game or multimedia creations.Some of the interesting modules being worked onOne of the 26 editor modules in the X-Producer includes the material editor. I needed to work on my textures and shaders pretty early on. It currently listens to changes made on the material shaders and updates the scene for you, so that you do not need to reload shaders and apply them again to each of the objects in the scenes one by one.

The theme editor is being constructed to create styling and rendering settings for 2D and 3D content which makes use of the given theme.

A prototype of the theme editor's platform level theme designer has been demonstrated in a video for you. The end product will prove useful for 2D video games.

One last example for today's update will be the film editor. This tool will produce animations using a number of interpolation functions and timelines based on the dotNET framework's animation system. Together with direct X the tool will eventually be capable of animating the cut scenes for the Sports Fiction game, and any scenes you intend to build for yours.

The other modulesWe will have the other modules introduced as time passes, but for those who do not wish to wait, you can check them out in the multipaged development blog.

Sports Fiction Project UpdateIt has been over a year since I have posted any updates on this journal; and will from this point onward, submit any additional details of work on the project.

I will briefly state that most of the details of activity have been posted on the main development blog at Sports Fiction @ TGC. With the most current update page here; and latest update here.

Changes since April 2013The structure of the project has changed dramatically!

From starting out as a small game concept about futuristic sports activity; I had decided that the game based on such a broad subject matter deserves a strong foundation consisting of development tools, development models, dedicated servers and a dedicated game engine to run as an end user client.

Most of the focus has gone from visuals, characters and visual entities; to the low level programming of elementrary building blocks for establishing a great development toolset for constructing fun sporting activities, challenging objectives and game mods.

Bring the journal up to dateIn order to bring things up to date, I will be posting some of the updates made on my main devblog; but to begin with I will have to start from where we left off.

Development KitThe development kit I have been constructing will provide you with what you need to create your own futuristic sports or story campaigns; making your creations available for players of the Sports Fiction game. The development kit has been called the X-Producer, and is maturing in development to the point of performing basic entitiy shading and property management. I will introduce this editor in further detail as time goes by because there is so much to take in; however if you do not wish to wait, you can find out more about it from its first introduction via this link.

Sports Fiction progressIt will take some time to explain what has been going on with the game; so we will break things down into small development updates.

To start off, we will first introduce what has been done with its engine. The engine code named Zero One, will process the game on a client PC which is connected to my multiplayer game servers. The engine is split up into a number of processes which handle the viewport, sound and user interface on the local PC. There is likely to be access to the game world using other devices when the game is developed.

To begin with the engine started off with 4 elements which are the viewport, world, backend and front end. Details of what these components perform have been shown here

Today, the structure has not changed, but some of the processes have been moved to the servers. I have yet to reveal any information about this fact, but the structure of the system has not changed.

Recent activity has been focused on implementing data manipulation features and a universe generator which will enable the players to travel accross land, sea and into outer space. This complex system has just started out as a land generator which uses a hex-tree to spawn various types of terrain which will affect the demographics and types of sporting locallities are to exist in a game session. This aspect of the game is to be mostly observable in a professional gaming mode and campaign mode. Other modes will get you straight into your sports of choice without delay; with the option to include a number of guests in a Sports Fiction party. But this is the stuff that will come to light later on; right now, the focus is on the foundation of the game's engine and server model.

About Sports FictionSports Fiction is a game that will supply your favourite sports in a world of science fiction and interaction. I have been working on the game part-time during the past year. Its code, graphics and audio are built from scratch and is running under the DirectX API with the aid of DBPRO. The focus at present is making it work and making it fun; with artistic and scientific polish set as the future focus. I am making everyone aware of its progress, how I managed to achieve certain results and what ideas I have come up with, so you can all find it and keep posted.

Feel free to enjoy a look at the journal, the screenshots and various websites associated with it because there is plenty to enjoy, review and learn. Post any ideas, tips, requests for tips or feedback so that your voice gets heard.

Thanks to the overwhelming challenges of piecing together loads of character control programming, textures and 3D models, my tasks can sometimes feel tough; but the journey is what I enjoy and it keeps me motivated; above all, your comments are an important factor because it helps me see a broader view of how my game can entertain you.